It does not appear that LeBron James will take nearly a $50 million paycut to play with his son on the Phoenix Suns next season.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!There had been some hope by fans that the team would draft Bronny James at No. 22 overall and LeBron would follow him to the Valley on a veteran minimum next season, as he has said he wants to play with Bronny in the past.
Even though Bronny has only worked out with the Suns and his father’s Los Angeles Lakers, the James’ agent, Rich Paul, addressed these rumors of LeBron going to the Suns to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony Wednesday.
“LeBron is off this idea of having to play with Bronny,” Paul told ESPN on Wednesday. “If he does, he does. But if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. There’s no deal made that it’s guaranteed that if the Lakers draft Bronny at 55, he [LeBron] will re-sign. If that was the case, I would force them to take him at 17. We don’t need leverage. The Lakers can draft Bronny, and LeBron doesn’t re-sign. LeBron is also not going to Phoenix for a minimum deal. We can squash that now.
“There are other teams that love Bronny. For example, Minnesota, Dallas, Toronto. If it’s not the Lakers, it will be someone else. Minnesota would love to get Bronny in, but I don’t know who their owner is going to be. [Mavs GM] Nico Harrison is like an uncle to Bronny. If the Lakers don’t take him at 55, Dallas would take him at 58 and give him a guaranteed deal. Masai [Ujiri, Raptors president], loves him. They could take him without even seeing him at 31. Workouts aren’t everything for these teams.”
Rich Paul also says that there is no package deal option for LeBron and Bronny with the Suns or Lakers:
"The Lakers can draft Bronny, and LeBron doesn't re-sign. LeBron is also not going to Phoenix for a minimum deal. We can squash that now." https://t.co/uQIOHV5Qev
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 19, 2024
The 39-year-old LeBron has a June 29 deadline for his $51.4 million player option to stay with the Lakers for the 2024-25 season.
Because the Suns are operating over the second-tax apron, Phoenix only has the ability to sign LeBron, and any other free agent, to a veteran minimum deal when free agency rolls around on June 30. This deal would be worth just $3-4 million, meaning LeBron, who is already a billionaire, would be taking around a $48 million paycut for the Suns.
In terms of hoping to add LeBron by a trade if he did opt into this $51.4 million option, the Suns would not be able to facilitate the trade above the second-tax apron.
When trading players, Phoenix is not able to take in more salary than it sends out, include cash in deals, aggregate contracts or use a preexisting trade exception. This means the Suns can’t package any players for James and have to take in equal or less salary than they send out. No one on the team, not even Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal or Devin Booker, will be making $51.4 million next season.
If James were to opt out, the Suns can’t add players via sign-and-trade either.
Why Bronny has only worked out for the Suns and Lakers
So then why has Bronny only worked out for the Suns and Lakers?
Paul told Givony that he structures the pre-draft process like this for a lot of his clients.
“‘This is nothing new,’ Paul said. ‘The goal is to find a team that values your guy and try to push him to get there. It’s important to understand the context and realize that this has always been the strategy with many of my clients throughout the years, especially those in need of development like Bronny. My stuff is by design.’
Paul pointed to his track record of steering clients to preferable destinations, such as he did with Talen Horton-Tucker (No. 46 pick in 2019), Brandon Boston Jr. (No. 51 pick in 2021) and Chris Livingston (No. 58 pick in 2023) all landing guaranteed deals despite conducting few workouts and being picked late in the draft.
Paul said he also took similar strategies with the likes of first-round selections MarJon Beauchamp (No. 24 pick in 2022) and Darius Garland (No. 5 pick in 2019), shielding his clients from workouts and withholding medical information from teams, something that is now prohibited by the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
‘Bronny is the same as my previous clients,’ Paul said. ‘I got the word out early to teams that if you plan on bringing Bronny in, here’s what you need to know: If you won’t give him a real deal, there’s nothing to talk about. It’s hard to get real development on a two-way deal.
‘I don’t care about him going to the Lakers, or Phoenix, or about what number he gets picked. It’s about fit.’
Paul added later: “‘If Bronny’s name was Charles Jacobsen and he was my client — I would do the same thing: identify teams that have real interest.'”
These comments pretty much confirm that the Suns either have real interest in just landing Bronny or are helping Klutch Sports by increasing Bronny’s draft stock.
The Suns only hold the No. 22 overall pick in this year’s draft, while the Lakers have the No. 17 and No. 55 overall picks. If L.A. wants to wait to draft James, the money difference between the No. 22 pick and the No. 55 pick gives Phoenix a lot of leverage in this situation.
The No. 55 pick, Isaiah Wong, signed a two-way deal worth $559k this past season with the Indiana Pacers and only $280k of that was guaranteed, per Salary Swish. Paul has already said Bronny will not be signing any two-way deals.
Givony reported yesterday that Bronny will be working out again with the Suns later this week. He has already worked out for both Phoenix and L.A. once.
The first round of the NBA Draft is just one week away on June 26. The Suns gain the ability to trade the No. 22 overall pick, as well as their 2031 first-round pick, on the day of the draft.
Report: Suns to have 2nd workout with Bronny James this week
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
